Escape From Hell's Gate
by CelticWomanJunkie
Summary: Trudy's POV on bailing out her friends...minor language, nothing too much worse than was in the movie. Then Jake's POV, his commentary on a special talent...I Completed This Due to lack of major interest
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Let's see: **I don't own Avatar, never have, probably never will.** I plan on exploring Jake's POV next, then maybe Grace's and Norm's. I'm honestly not sure yet, but Jake's is guaranteed. I guess that depends on the interest the story receives. I measure interest in reviews, not hits, by the way, just saying. I'm curious what you'll think, so I hope you'll let me know. By the way, I freely admit I didn't think this title up, I got it from the scene selection on the Avatar DVD. (Great Stuff!)

**Escape From Hell's Gate.**

It was career suicide, probably the dumbest thing she'd ever done, and that was saying something. Trudy had worked her butt off to get where she was, and now she was about to blow it. Flying was all she'd ever wanted to do from the word go, getting to be a pilot was all she'd ever cared about. "Can't keep your feet on the ground, can you, mi hija. Too good for us, huh?" her mother was always saying at her, taking another drink.

"Just like you can't keep sober for five minutes," she'd mutter, leaving her mom to her latest happy hour. The sky always felt more like home than the miserable hole in the wall her mom had called a house, all 19 of them over the years. There'd been just about as many "daddies" some of them worse assholes than others. Some had wandering hands, but she'd gotten tough quick. Then she joined the air force, never looked back. By the time the mission for Pandora came up, she had nothing worth staying for on Earth. No boyfriends or anything like that, just the occasional hook-up or a friend with benefits.

To this day, she didn't know if her mother was dead or alive, and she didn't really feel like finding out.

But she had people that she cared about now, that was the sticky part. Grace, Jake and even Norm, they'd all grown on her. They'd all gotten tight, made up some kind of weird family. They gave each other crap, joked, hung out, all that good stuff. Trudy wasn't really comfortable with the whole bonding thing, she liked to be on her own, but she was comfortable around these people. That counted for a lot.

After all, they weren't exactly expecting her to hold hands and get in touch with her inner feelings. They liked her for what she was...a total smartass, a messed up one at that.

She wanted to look out for herself, that was what she was good at. That was the problem with giving a damn about other people; it looked like it just got you into all kinds of shit. She couldn't sit pretty and let them get court marshaled, it wasn't an option.

"You sure about this?" Max asked her, like she would be.

"Not even a little bit, and since you're the genius with the PhD, you shouldn't be either," she told him grimly. If they got caught, they'd be beyond screwed.

"It's okay to be scared, Trudy." He looked pretty freaked out his own self, all sweaty and shaky. "No one would blame you if-"

"I would, okay?" They needed her, she was their best shot. "This needs to be done and I'm doing it. I'm just sayin' this is just gonna buy time, you know? The whole snow ball in hell thing, Quaritch _will _come after us, guns blazing. We don't have a chance."

"That's the spirit," Max said, trying to smile. "Shall we start this party?"

She nodded, taking a deep breath. She wasn't just scared, she was frickin' terrified but that was okay. It wasn't the first time, she'd learned early that you didn't back down, even if you got scared. That's why she thrived in the military, kicking butt in what was still the boy's club. The guys eventually accepted her because she didn't take their shit lying down, she got in their faces. Now she was throwing all the rules out the window, no safety net now.

She tracked down Jenkins; the grunt drew the short straw and was delivering the food to the detention center. "Hey, Jenkins," she called, playing it cool. "Colonel wants you, like five minutes ago."

His face, baby fat and all, went white. "He wants _me_? Why?"

"Do I look like the information desk?" She shrugged, nudging him aside with her hip. "Guess I better go feed Fletcher Christian and his gang before they start whinin' about their rights."

"Huh?" Obviously, not a movie buff. Too bad, Clark Gable was a hottie, but Jenkins probably wouldn't agree. Unless...well, hey, no skin off her nose.

"Look, private, you got more balls than brains keeping Quaritch waiting. I'd get moving if I were you."

"Right." He nodded, all but ran down the hall. Trudy wasn't exactly strolling herself, there wasn't much time. She focused on the mission, keeping herself steady. A look through the glass and she felt the tension ease in her stomach a little. Pfeiffer was guarding them, it couldn't have been better if she'd assigned him herself. Grace had once called his IQ depressing, and she wasn't far off. Everything had just got a whole lot easier.

He typed in the entry code, not even wondering why a pilot with her rep got stuck with such a menial job. Typical. She stepped through the opening doors, acting like she didn't have a care in the world. She made the first move, keeping her voice easy and light. "Hey, what's going on, brother? Long time no see." She made sure to keep her back to the wall, even Pfeiffer would see red flags otherwise.

"Hey." She took a second to glance over at her buddies, in a holding cell but okay. She'd been worried the Colonel would really give them the treatment, some kind of 'Resisting Arrest' thing. Except for a small cut on Jake's face, they looked okay. She breathed a little easier.

They were watching her pretty close, but they were keeping their mouths shut. She couldn't blame them, they were probably trying to figure her out. _They _had the brains to be surprised she was standing there, although they probably weren't thinking along the lines of being rescued.

She dropped the bait in, hoping Pfeiffer was enough of a moron to bite. "Personally I don't think these tree-hugging traitors deserve stake." Yeah, like that'd ever happen in a million years. She saw Jake's eyes narrow and Grace had a similar look on her face. Again, points for brains, because she didn't even get stake in this joint. Hell, that was for the CEO's.

There really was a sucker born every minute and the sucker was Pfeiffer 'cause he didn't even miss a beat. "They get stake? No way. Let me see that."

While he was bending over, smile never faltering, Trudy eased her gun from her belt. She couldn't help but laugh as she stuck the barrel of her weapon at the back of his neck. She'd say part 1 of the mission had been a success.

"Yeah, you know what that is," she told him, suddenly all business. "Down."

"Trudy," she heard Norm say. That was one pleased dude.

"All the way down." Pfeiffer was taking his time, probably straining that pea brain of his, and trying to figure out how to turn the tables. It was so not going to happen. She brought the gun down, making sure she hit him hard enough that he was out cold, but not so hard he'd buy the farm. Last time she checked, being a total moron wasn't a killing offense. You had to be a moron _and _start shooting. Important qualification, really.

The three of them were at the door, just ready to go. That's what she liked about this gang, no soul-searching crap, no 'Trudy, my God! Why?' Just ready to go.

"Max!" she called, antsy to get a move on. She put her gun away, giving them a look like: _Like I wouldn't come, seriously._

Max scrambled in, card in place. He monkied around with the sensory machine, the door sliding open. "Nice of you to join us," Jake drawled.

"You're welcome, wheels," she shot back at him. They took a second to grin as they hustled out of there, and out the corner of her eye, she saw Grace indulgently make a face at them. It felt good, it felt normal.

By the time they hit the corridor, the situation kicked in, and there was no room for kidding around. Behind her Jake said: "Trudy, fire up the ship." To Norm: "Go."

A little out of shape, Norm had to push himself to catch up to her. "Here." She handed him the gun, relieved he seemed comfortable handling it. She didn't have time for rookie shit, none of them did. She kept on high alert, ready to shoot if necessary. She knew Jake would do the same.

She took a minute to get a mask for herself and Norm, then they ran into the maze of planes, trying to avoid the light. Norm had her back, taking the covers off her plane when they got to it. She played with the gears, trying to loosen it up to go quicker. She turned the engine on, hearing it purr to life. "Come on baby," she murmured. Any minute now, they'd be onto them.

Grace and Jake were headed her way, Max must have decided to stay. She just hoped he had the balls to play it cool because they'd nail him for this if they found out. By the time Norm and Grace hoisted Jake in, Samson 1-6 was ready for take off.

"Come on," she told them. She could feel the hammer about to drop, it was in the air. It seemed like this was taking forever, and it was no Sunday social. In their defense, they weren't acting like it but they weren't moving fast enough.

Next thing she knew, the Colonel had opened fire and he definitely wasn't taking prisoners. It was literally do or die now. "I'm taking fire, let's go," she announced. She couldn't wait much longer. Hell, none of them could.

Norm had scrambled up into the plane, pulling Grace along. Jake was doing his best to help, yelling for them to go, to keep going. It occurred to Trudy, randomly, that people said stuff in crisis situations. Useless crap, like: "You can do it" or "keep going" or something like that. It wasn't that the other person needed the feedback, it was because the other person needed to talk 'cause that's all they had to do, it was better than nothing.

And the Colonel kept on firing, even when Grace had taken cover because he was so pissed they'd gotten away, he had to try. Whatever chance he had of taking them out, slim or not, he was gonna take.

No one said human beings made sense. She bet the Navi had their fucked up moments too.

Who didn't? She didn't know and she didn't care.

What she did know and what she did care about was that it was going to be a game of hide and seek. The Colonel was a few cards short of a deck, and they'd just given him another reason to attend Anger Management. She just hoped Jake had a plan...scratch that. She hoped Jake had a viable plan, 'cause they'd need it.

Her? She was just the pilot.


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, everybody. Sorry this installment took so long…all I can say is that in my opinion, math is the devil. Still don't own Avatar…so enjoy the story!

**Escape From Hell's Gate part 2**

_You know your life's fucked up when..._I can't help thinking, and nobody's saying a thing to distract me...nope, not a word. Not that I can blame Norm or Grace, total and deep despair tends to kind of hurt the conversational skill thing, but that could just be me.

Man, oh, man, when I decide to make a mistake, I mean, the mother of all mistakes, I have to admit, I go for big and bad. For a bonus, I usually drag other people along for the ride. Poor Tommy, when we were kids, I used to get us into all sorts of crap.

I remember one time in particular, maybe 'cause it was the last time. Our dad just beat the shit out of us, we'd stolen his car for a joyride before being, oh, I don't know, legally in a position where we could drive. I guess some crazy politician passed this law where you can't drive without a license and we were only fourteen. I kind of strong-armed Tommy into it, I swear, he wasn't half as nuts as me, which is probably a good thing.

Anyway, we had a good time...until we got busted. Now, we were pretty tough, could take and throw our punches. It's bad enough I had a nerd for a brother, I wasn't gonna have him be a wimp on top of it. But my old man used to box semi-professionally, and he was a strong SOB. Oh, don't get me wrong, he was all right as long as you didn't piss him off, but man, you got him mad...and that day, we pissed him off good. I think both of us were coughing up blood, crumpled up on the floor and my mom was screaming at him. "What if you'd landed them in the hospital Muhammad Ali? Ever think of that?" Think he just grunted and went out to his workshop. Nice thing about dad is once he got it out of his system, it was all good. The slate was clean, none of this walking on eggshells stuff a lot of my buddies had to deal with.

"Jake," Tommy groaned. "I have a deep and moved admiration for your talent at fucking up. Really, it's like watching an artist work. All the same, I think I'll admire it from a long, long, long, distance." He coughed again, his face looking like hamburger, mine probably did, too. "So, do me a favor, oh, please, just keep me out of it."

And I did, from then on out, I kept him out of it. It was the least I could do. I loved him, can't remember even sayin' it, but I loved him like crazy. That didn't mean we got each other, might as well have been on another planet. People always talk about this twin connection, and I don't know about it. I couldn't read his mind or anything, and the day he died, I didn't feel a damned thing. I didn't even have a twinge of a bad feeling, other than my general opinion that life sucked. Grace would probably say I was in a deep depression at the time, my friends just thought I needed to get laid. Whatever, whichever. I didn't know Tommy was in trouble, didn't know that maybe the worst thing that could ever happen to me wasn't getting my spine shot up.

_Tommy, man, _I think to myself. _Should have been you, you should have gotten to do this mission. Except for the part where you sleep with Neytiri, but don't see that being a problem anyway. _Tommy never came clean with me, but I'm 99.9% sure he was gay. It was weird for me, I'm not gonna lie, but I also thought his science BS was weird, so there you go. If he got it up with guys and not chicks, it was none of my business.

It occurs to me, when I have oh, so much time for the self-reflection I never wanted, that it bugs me Tommy never came clean. Did he think I'd kick his ass, that I would freeze him out? Trust me, I have had my shining moments, but it hurts that he'd think I'd be that much of an ass-hole. How people can write loved ones off for who they want to get their rocks off with, I'll never understand. Then again, Tommy was the brains of the operation, maybe he'd know.

It was kind of a joke with us. Sometimes he'd say: "Too bad at birth I got all the brains."

"Apparently, I got the balls, too, Nancy," I'd jibe back at him. It was all in good fun, just talking smack. Jesus, did he take it seriously? How can you know someone your whole life and not really know them?

All right, I'm officially being philosophical. This is pretty scary shit.

I miss him, sometimes worse than others. Sometimes, I don't even think about him, it's weird. I'll be doing my thing, and Tommy's out of sight, out of mind. Then other times, the most random thing has me feeling like I've been suckered punched, like I can't breathe right because Tommy's dead and it hits me all over again.

This is worse, way worse, what I'm feeling now. It's like everything bad that's ever happened to me combined, Tommy included, and that was plenty bad on its own. At least with Tommy, I got nothing to feel guilty about, I didn't hand his killer a gun and say "This is how you pull the trigger, just give it a go." This time around, that's what I did, I gave a friggin' psycho the keys to the kingdom, I laid it out step by step for the colonel. Today was just the beginning, I bet, oh, I bet there's big plans for the Na'vi. Reservations? 'Reform schools?' Christ.

I double over just thinking about it, I really, really hate me right now. I can't stand thinking about Neytiri...my gorgeous Neytiri. God, the way she looked at me. I think she really, really hates me right now too, hates my guts, actually, and I can't blame her. I half wish she'd just cut my throat, I'd have had it coming. I hurt her so bad, I stabbed her and my people in the back. Yeah, I was following orders, but that's what the Nazis said. Not exactly an inspiring thought when you break it down.

Oh, and this is _after _I deflower the girl by the way. The Na'vi don't sleep around, sex is everything to them. Obviously, 'mated for life' is pretty heavy stuff, you don't make decisions like that on the flip of a coin. The best night of my life just hurts her more, it just adds to the betrayal. Nice, Sully, way to go. You are officially an asshole.

What's really fucked up is I love her, more than anything. I love the land, I love the forest. This isn't some nice, sweet kind of love. On both accounts, its knocked me on my ass, it's like that _Tsa'haylu_ stuff, only more powerful, like I'm literally meshed with both Pandora and her. I don't know whether I'm coming or going. They're inside me, I'm inside them.

So what do I do? Hey, I'm Jake Sully, I'm gonna fuck it up. That's what I'll do. I'll make good and sure that I'll lose everything that makes me want to live, that's what I'll do.

Seriously, could someone just shoot me?

I vaguely hear our assigned say something, then heard Trudy's voice saying: "What's going on, brother? Long time, no see."

That's got our attention, and I don't know what to think. Trudy may not like it, but she's on their team, and I can't blame her. Why should she blow her career to hell? I notice she's pushing a food cart, but there's no way she's here to feed us, not a pilot with her credentials. Did the colonel send her, is she here to cut some kind of deal? I try to think about what the colonel needs from me, or Grace, or Norm, but I'm coming up empty. I already handed the colonel Home Tree on a fucking golden platter, and the Na'vi would just as soon kill my ass as talk to me now.

Even Neytiri. Especially Neytiri. God.

"Personally I don't think there's tree-hugging traitors deserve stake." Okay, bullshit. No way are we getting stake, something ain't right. I notice Norm and Grace have the same way of thinking. Is she gonna do what I think...?

Obviously, our assigned can't see the forest for the trees, 'cause he don't even think twice about what's wrong with _that _sentence. "They get stake?" the big dummy says. "Let me see that." Okay, she's reaching for something, and she's drawing her weapon...yeah, I pretty much think she's doing what I thought.

She goes from easy laughing to dead serious, gun pressed to the side of his head. "Yeah, you know what that is. Down."

"Trudy," Norm says, like he just saw Jesus.

"All the way down." Then she's whacking him with the butt of the gun, the move neat and easy. Now she's in just as deep as us, and Neytiri's voice is in my head. _You don't thank for this. _No, some things you don't.

"Max!" Trudy says, and I see Grace raise an eyebrow. Yeah, I never would have figured Max either. He comes ready, about ready to puke or pass out, but he's there and we're free twenty seconds later.

"Nice of you to join us," I tell her, and her sneer is comforting somehow.

"You're welcome, wheels," she kids me back, and we're okay, just like that.

I feel something kick in as we high-tail it down the corridor, keeping an eye out for trouble. I'm scared, but that's good. Fear is a sign of life, it puts you in a heightened state of awareness, if you use it right.

_Sky people do not see, _Neytiri once accused, blowing me off, trying to walk away, and we don't, not the way the Na'vi do, but we have our tricks of getting around, we adapt. I gave up for a second there, but I got my second wind. I may be stuck in this chair, but Neytiri gave my brain a whole new set of tricks, and it's just throwing them together with the old, and I'll be in business.

"Trudy, fire up the ship." To Norm, I jerk my head. _Come on buddy, don't wait for Christmas. _"Go." I lose sight of them and I force myself to focus, to keep myself on guard, use all my senses. Nobody's around, everybody's at their posts. God love Military efficiency

We hit the end of the road, I take a second to look behind me, to be sure, never can be too paranoid when breaking ten or so laws. I turn my focus on Max, another person who's got their neck on their line. I'm about to ask him to up the ante, but I don't have any more time to waste on regrets. "Max, stay here. I need somebody on the inside I can trust."

"Okay." I can trust him, it's all over his face. "Go." I'm gone.

The airfield get's to me, there's something fucking creepy about it. All metal and gray, no life, no green. Light circles around the planes, ready to blow our cover, ready to screw us over. I can't go as fast as I want, fucking useless body. A prison. _Suck it up, Sully._

Grace and Norm have to hoist me up; it wipes me out just getting into the plane. I've let myself go, my muscles are like water, I'm weak from malnutrition. Being in my Na'vi body is like a drug, and I just couldn't get enough, couldn't get away from my broken human form fast enough, and I'm payin' for it in spades right now.

"Come on!" Trudy's telling me. _Workin' on it, _I want to yell, but grit my teeth. Keeping going, keep going, that's what I gotta do. The air's got something in it, the shoe's about to drop.

Gunshots, the tension in the air exploding into multiple rounds.

"I'm taking fire, let's go," Trudy tells us, but it ain't that simple. My fucking chair still is getting lifted, and Grace is still on the ground, bullets flying.

"Let's go, go, go," I tell Trudy. No matter how many times you come under fire, it's never normal, never right.

Then we're taking off, and I see the colonel still taking pot shots. _One day, _I promise him and myself silently, _we're gonna have a reckoning up. _It ain't hate that makes me think that, it ain't that complicated.

It's just the way it is. Him or me, I just have a feelin'.


End file.
